A standard for competition
Before 1998 Chinese mahjong had no national standard. The Mahjong Competition Rules (often called MCR, or Guobiao in Chinese) were designed to create a fair, skill-based game for tournaments. They have since been adopted internationally.
81 patterns
MCR lists 81 scoring patterns, from one-point elements such as a pure double chow or a terminal pung to 88-point limit-style hands like big four winds and thirteen orphans. Players add up the points for all patterns present, following rules that prevent the same feature being counted twice.
The eight-point minimum
A hand must be worth at least eight points, not counting flowers, to win. This forces players to build hands of real value, rather than winning quickly with cheap ones, and makes the game more strategic.
Payment
When a player wins on a discard, the discarder pays the hand's value plus 8 points, and each of the other players pays 8. On a self-drawn win, each opponent pays the hand's value plus 8. This system balances risk and reward across the table.
